nami.org |
Arlington, VA – Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget bill that will seriously hurt people with mental illness by massively cutting critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP, which provide lifesaving support to millions of Americans. NAMI is deeply alarmed and saddened by the passage of this bill in the House and released the following statement from CEO Daniel H. Gillison, Jr.:
“Millions of people will lose their health care coverage under the House of Representatives’ budget reconciliation bill, including many with mental health conditions. Medicaid is the backbone of our country’s mental health system, paying for roughly one quarter of the country’s mental health and substance use care and covering one in three people with a mental illness. Cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid will undoubtedly hurt millions of Americans and keep far too many from getting the mental health services they need and deserve.”
The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act makes deep cuts to Medicaid, which will result in fewer people having health care coverage, fewer health care services available, more expensive care, and a weaker overall U.S. mental health system. The bill makes significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) that will impact millions of working Americans who rely on food assistance to feed their families.
The bill will now move to the Senate. Congressional leaders have indicated that they hope to have a final bill on President Trump’s desk by the July 4th holiday. NAMI’s Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski said:
“We are deeply concerned that half of the House would back a bill that so clearly harms people with mental illness—including many in their own districts. There is nothing beautiful about cutting off millions of Americans from life-saving health care coverage and food assistance. We fervently hope that the Senate will reject these cuts and protect access to these life-saving programs. NAMI will keep fighting to protect Medicaid and protect mental health care.”
NAMI launched the “Protect Medicaid. Protect Mental Health.” campaign earlier this year to raise awareness of the impact of Medicaid on mental health care. Through this campaign, NAMI advocates have sent more than 120,000 emails and made more than 6,000 phone calls to Congress to protect Medicaid.
To learn more about NAMI and our advocacy work, visit nami.org/Medicaid.
